DOES PORTUGAL HAVE THE SOLUTION TO OUR DRUG EPIDEMIC?

In 2001, the world's media descended on one of Lisbon's poorer
districts. Portugal had become the first country in the EU to
decriminalise drug use and the coverage painted a bleak picture of the
continent's "most shameful neighbourhood" and "worst drugs ghetto"
where addicts openly injected heroin.

This "ultra-liberal legislation", it was feared, would lead to drug
tourists descending on Portugal. The leader of the country's People's
Party, Paulo Portas, said plane-loads of foreign students would head
for the Algarve for "sun, beaches and any drug you like".

Yet, 10 years on, Portugal's drug policy is being held up as the model
for other countries to follow. Rather than criminalising people found
in possession of drugs, they are sent to a "dissuasion commission" for
treatment and the results have been spectacular.

Portugal now has one of Europe's lowest lifetime usage rates for
cannabis and heroin abuse has decreased among vulnerable younger age-groups.

The share of heroin users who inject the drug has also fallen -- from
45pc before decriminalisation to 17pc today.

Portugal's previously high rate of HIV has also plummeted with drug
addicts now accounting for only 20pc of all new cases, down from 56pc
before. In 2001, new diagnosis of HIV was running at about 3,000 a
year. Now, it's down to fewer than 2,000 per annum.

Other measures have been just as encouraging. Deaths of street users
from accidental overdoses also appear to have declined as has petty
crime associated with addicts who were stealing to maintain their habit.

Furthermore, recent surveys in schools suggest an overall decrease in
drug experimentation. It's estimated that as much as a,-400m has been
taken out of the illegal drugs market, with Portuguese police now
focusing their attentions on high-level dealers rather than small-time
operators.

"It's been a resounding success," says Jose Pinto, Chancellor of the
Embassy of Portugal, Dublin. "Walk around any of the cities and you
will see that it is different to 10 years ago.

'Drug-taking or people being strung-out is not something you would see
as much on the streets any more. And the country has not become a
destination for drug tourists at all. It's nothing like Amsterdam,
where there has been a tolerance of some drugs.

"Some of the right-wing and conservative politicians thought the
policy of treating drug addicts rather than punishing them would not
work, but it has. The country had a significant problem with drug
abuse and the rate of HIV infection in the 1980s and 1990s and now the
rest of the world is looking at Portugal and what it has achieved in
just one decade."

And Ireland is set to join the list of admiring onlookers. Joao
Goulao, the architect of the policy, will be the keynote speaker at
the National Drugs Conference to be held in Dublin on November 3 and
4.

Tim Bingham, who is one of the organisers of the conference, hopes
Goulao's visit will help foster debate on Portugal's visionary approach.

"There is a great deal we can learn from Portugal," Bingham, chairman
of the Irish Needle Exchange Forum, says.

"Here, we criminalise anyone caught in possession of drugs. In
Portugal, people are treated humanely and they are helped to overcome
their addiction without fear of being considered a criminal.

"It's important to remember that 'decriminalisation' and
'legalisation' are two very different things. You can't just walk down
the street in Portugal smoking a joint or shooting up in the street.

"The drugs are confiscated and you are compelled to undertake a
rehabilitation programme. It's still illegal to be in possession of
drugs, but the consequences are very different from here."

The number of addicts registered in drug-substitution programmes rose
from 6,000 in 1999 to over 24,000 in 2008, reflecting a huge rise in
treatment but not drug use.

"Before decriminalisation, addicts were afraid to seek treatment
because they feared they would be denounced to the police and
arrested," says Manuel Cardoso, of the Institute for Drugs and Drug
Addiction, one of Portugal's leading drugs-prevention agencies.

"Now they know that they will be treated as patients with a problem
and not stigmatised as criminals."

The aim of the dissuasion commissions, which are composed of
psychiatrists, social workers and legal advisers, is to encourage
addicts to undergo treatment and to stop recreational users falling
into addiction.

They have the power to impose community work and even fines, but it is
a sign of the success of the programme that they rarely have to resort
to these measures.

Roughly 7,500 people a year are turned over to the commission by the
police but nobody carrying anything considered to be less than a
10-day personal supply of drugs can be arrested, sentenced to jail or
given a criminal record.

"Here, if you're caught in possession, you will have a stain on your
record for life," Tim Bingham says. "Think how hard it is to rebuild
your life if you've got a criminal record, especially in a climate
like this where jobs are now so hard to come by. In the UK, it's a bit
more progressive because some records are erased after five or six
years."

Portugal's success story, meanwhile, has attracted the attention of
some of the world's most successful people. Luminaries such as
billionaire investor George Soros, former UN secretary general Kofi
Annan and entrepreneur Richard Branson are part of an influential
think-tank, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, and they are
advocating decriminalisation in the so-called 'war on drugs'.

"Locking people up in prison is not the answer," says Branson.
"Treating the problem as a health problem, rather than a crime, is. In
the few countries in the world where they have decriminalised the
taking of drugs, Portugal being the best example, the amount of heroin
addicts has dropped by half. There's been a drop in the HIV figures
and the amount of cannabis use is the lowest in Europe."

This punishment-does-not-work view is endorsed by one of America's
leading drug policy analysts, Mark Kleiman. "We should take seriously
the possibility that anti-user enforcement isn't having much influence
on our drug consumption."

Ireland is no stranger to drug problems with an estimated 20,000
people considered to be addicted to heroin. Some 15,000 of them are
Dublin-based and they are a highly visible presence on the streets of
the inner-city, much to the chagrin of local residents and tourists.

"Much of Irish society regards addicts as social delinquents rather
than people in need of help," says Tony Duffin, director of one of
Ireland's best regarded drug treatment centres, the Dublin-based Ana
Liffey Project. "But that attitude only exacerbates the problem and it
leads to even greater marginalisation than before."

Tim Bingham notes that even the language used to describe addicts
suggests we have a long way to go to reach Portugal's stance. "How can
people regularly called 'junkies' feel any sense of communion with the
wider populace? The lack of tolerance or understanding of society is
very damaging.

"The problem of drug addiction won't just go away if it is ignored, we
need real vision if anything is to change. And the lead to follow
comes from a country in much the same situation economically as
Ireland -- Portugal."